Three Young Texans

The title doesn't sound very promising for a Wild West film, it rather suggests some youngsters going for some picnic adventure, but you are in for a pleasant surprise. This is a great drama of family loyalty and bonds brought to the test by getting mixed up in a train robbery, in which nothing works out as planned. Jeffrey Hunter didn't make many films before he died far too early, which makes those films he did make the mora valuable and watchable. The story is horribly complicated and constantly gets worse in the development, but like some monster equation it actually works out in the end, and with some obligatory casualties, not to disappoint the ordinary wild west audience. The acting is very good all around, so is the music and the settings, so the risk is that this western is highly underrated. As one reviewer observed, it is worth the wait.

Young Mitzi Gaynor was already firmly established as a rising musical star when Fox entrusted her to their resident Jack-of-all-trades Henry Levin to put her through her paces on horseback as a pert short-haired Texan tomboy packing a shotgun in this breezy Technicolor western.

As Mitzi's pappy Morris Ankrum takes a break from playing generals. You expect villainy from Michael Ansara (here wearing a huge sombrero) but as his partner in crime robbing a train you don't expect Aaron Spelling, soon to give up acting and later became much more familiar as a name on the credits of nonsense like 'Dallas'.

A Texan (Jeffrey Hunter) robs a train in an effort to prevent his father ( who is blackmailed into doing so) from committing the crime. A young girl (Mitzi Gaynor) attempts to help him after learning about the theft. A cowboy friend (Keefe Brasselle) demands a share of the money, but Jeff wants to return the money to the railroad. Keefe joins up with the villains and Jeff goes after them to clear his and his father's name and also to try and save Keefe from the bad hombres (don't know why he's one stupid and irritating character with a whiny voice!)

Three Young Texans is quite an interesting and engaging western with good performances, location and good photography all round. The title makes it sound like a fluffy story with young leads, but it has a noir-like suspense due to a dilemma - how does Jeffrey Hunter prevent his father from robbing the railroad's payroll? Simple, rob it himself and then return it to the authorities, but it isn't as simple as his avaricious friend steals the hidden money, hence spiralling the drama and action into one compelling western. Sometimes it's good to have low expectations, which I had for this western, thinking it was fairly average stuff, as it's nice to be surprised by a solid film.

When a routine poker game goes wrong, a card-sharp is killed and the man who did the shooting is coerced by the "witnesses" to take part in a train robbery else they will not corroborate his story and he will doubtlessly hang! Thing is, his son "Johnny" (Jeffrey Hunter) hears their plotting and decides the only thing he can do, is to rob the train himself! The plot only becomes more complicated when "Rusty" (Mitzi Gaynor) discovers the truth and his friend "Tony" (Keefe Brasselle) who has hidden the loot tries to double cross him with "Apache Joe" (Michael Ansara). Can "Johnny" and "Rusty" get the cash before it's all too late? It's a rather straightforward little western this. A bit too long, and certainly predictable but there are plenty of action scenes, horse chases and shoot outs. Michael Ansara is usually reliable as a baddie and together with an outing for Aaron Spelling before he knew Charlie or his Angels is worth keeping an eye out for. Hunter and Gaynor are easy enough on the eye and work just well enough to keep this running through to an ending that, actually, has a very slight twist to it. It's about family, loyalty and friendship - so never fear, a moral is never far away!

This was a very hard film to find. It took me years to track down a copy. I'm a big Jeffrey Hunter fan. In this film, Jeff overhears that some card sharks ( Michael Ansara & Aaron Spelling) are trying to blackmail Jeff's father. The blackmailers plan to rob a train that has

a federal payroll & force Jeff's father to join them with the robbery. Jeff disrupts their plans by robbing the train himself & puts the money in a safe place. His girlfriend ( Mitzi Gaynor) and his buddy ( Keefe Brasselle) find out what Jeff did. Keefe decides that he wants to keep the payroll money for himself while Jeff wants to return the money to the feds. Keefe joins up with the villains ( bad move) and Jeff goes after them to clear his and his father's name & also to save Keefe from the bad guys.